Thursday, March 31, 2005

What a week. U2 Tour kicks off in San Diego and the Tar Heels in the Final Four. All my online "groups" are in a tizzy and it's like the world just began.U2 pulled out "An Cat Dubh", a seriously deep deep-cut & "Electric Co." from Boy, as well as "Zoo Station", left out others they normally play...2nd night they added "Gloria". Great to see a tour that really isn't greatest hits. I say keep pulling out deep cuts....from any U2 era (play Fast Cars!)

The Tar Heels are in the Final Four again, after what seems like a long 5 years. I'm nervous for the MSU game already, and my nerves won't be calmed until I'm walking down a happy Franklin Street on Tuesday. Go Heels!

Great time at Bald Head with nice weather on Saturday. Anna Grace & Jack had a ball with the dying of the eggs, and Anna Grace discovered what happens when you squeeze the egg too hard. More pictures to come!

Thursday, March 17, 2005

"So the Finnish biochemist and his colleagues slipped some of their old cultures under an electron microscope one day in 1988 and took a closer look. That's when they saw the particles. Like bacteria but an astonishing 100 times smaller, they seemed to be thriving inside the dying cells.

Believing them to be a possible new form of life, Kajander named the particles "nanobacteria," published a paper outlining his findings and spurred one of the biggest controversies in modern microbiology.

At the heart of the debate is the question of whether nanobacteria could actually be a new form of life. To this day, critics argue that a particle just 20 to 200 nanometers in diameter can't possibly harbor the components necessary to sustain life. The particles are also incredibly resistant to heat and other methods that would normally kill bacteria, which makes some scientists wonder if they might be an unusual form of crystal rather than organisms. "

Wow! I've been looking for this software for some time, finally it's here, and FREE! It's called Centarsia, and this master photo is made up of hundreds of pictures from our wedding. I can't wait to play around with this on some more photos, the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

RollingStone.com: U2 : U2, Guy Rock the Hall : News:"O'Jays leader Eddie Levert rejoiced in his group's entrance into the Hall. 'To be mentioned in the same breath as B.B. King and people like U2 and the Beatles, this is a great honor,' he said. 'Now I'm one of them.'"

I love that quote...

They should have mixed "For the Love of Money" with "Desire", that would have been cool (since Bono says "for the love of money" over and over in "Desire").

Monday, March 14, 2005

More interesting U2 praise from smart folks. I think people are finally starting to catch on to this band.

From @U2 newsgroup (couldn't find link @sltrib.com)

Salt Lake Tribune13th March 2005

BYU prof says U2 more than musicians, they're philosophers

By Brandon Griggs

In his History of Philosophy survey course, Brigham Young UniversityProfessor Mark Wrathall likes to quote famous thinkers to illustratetenets of existentialism.Sartre? Kierkegaard?Rock band U2."They're so much more quotable than most philosophers," saysWrathall of the Irish rockers, who are being inducted today into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. Wrathall has incorporated U2 song lyricsinto many of his classes and even plays the band's CDs and videos forhis students. "It's easier to spout a U2 line as an answer to aphilosophical question than, say, Kant."Courses on contemporary pop culture are increasingly common onuniversity campuses. One small Christian school, Calvin College inGrand Rapids, Mich., recently offered a class on U2 and religion. ButWrathall, who is working on a forthcoming book, U2 and Philosophy, isperhaps the first professor to seriously analyze the philosophicalimplications of the band's lyrics.A longtime fan of U2, Wrathall hit upon the idea in 1997 whiledriving to Provo from California."I remember it very clearly. I was in the middle of the Nevadadesert, listening to 'Last Night On Earth' from the 'Pop' album," hesays. "I was struck by how Nietzschean the song was, and I thought,'Wow, I could really use this in my lectures.' "Wrathall has identified several distinct philosophical stages ofU2's 25-year career. As he sees it, the band's early songs reflectedtraditional Christian pessimism. By 1987's "The Joshua Tree," however, U2 had begun to question whether religious faith alone couldfulfill a person: "You carried the cross/And my shame/You know Ibelieved it/But I still haven't found what I'm looking for."The next stage, from 1991's "Achtung Baby" through 1997's "Pop,"found the band flirting with existential despair. In embracing the viewthat humans are responsible for their own actions, U2 recognized theanguish inherent in such a burden.Its current phase, beginning with 2000's "All That You Can't LeaveBehind," shows the band rediscovering its Christian roots to achieve asort of existential joy. On "Beautiful Day," frontman and chieflyricist Bono sings, "what you don't have, you don't need it now." Onits recent song "Vertigo," U2 celebrates earthly love as a form ofspiritual fulfilment.Wrathall sometimes passes out U2 lyric sheets in class to help hisstudents decipher songs' meanings. He believes his U2 lessons helpbring some life to dry philosophical concepts. And what better way tograb the attention of the MTV generation than through rock music?"Students tend to miss the connections between what we say in classand the rest of their lives," says Wrathall, who earned a law degreefrom Harvard and a doctorate in philosophy from UC-Berkeley beforecoming to BYU. "So it's nice to be able to show them that even the mostabstract philosophy can be seen every day in pop culture."His students agree."It's really helpful," says senior Josh Gillon, a philosophy major."I'll never listen to U2 the same way again.""It's a real fun way to learn," adds fellow senior Steve Stakland."Because it's contemporary music . . . it's easier to relate to.Whereas if he just told us to read Kierkegaard, it wouldn't make nearlyas much sense."Parents, don't fret - Wrathall still makes his classes readKierkegaard, Nietzsche and other great thinkers. But he gets morerequests for his U2 lectures.The professor is editing a book on the philosophy of U2's music, tobe published as part of a series in 2006 by Open Court, anIllinois-based publishing house. Previous books in the series haveprobed the philosophy of such pop-culture phenomenons as "TheSimpsons," the "Matrix" movies and the Harry Potter books.All his scholarship, however, can't get Wrathall tickets to U2'sSalt Lake City concert in December. Nor has it won him any specialaccess to the superstar rock band. But that's OK with him. SaysWrathall, "They're doing just fine without me."

I usually find some fault with her stories, but she's on the mark here. This shows how our gov't is more concerned with helping corporations that give money to political campaigns than to protecting the rights of its citizens. That's pretty much the definition of fascism.

Friday, March 11, 2005

"North Carolina and other states need to free themselves from the self-destructive competition to pay multi-million-dollar bribes to corporations that promise to 'create jobs.' A recent federal court ruling against such 'tax incentives' offered the possibility of ending them"

The Federal government needs to curb this process, it's piting states and cities against each other, and in the long run, it hurts everybody.

"Fascism has long been clearly and simply defined as corporate control of the state, with strong totalitarian, militaristic, anti-feminist and anti-gay characteristics.

Both Mussolini's Fascist's and Hitler's Nazis used acts of terror and alleged terror to grab absolute power. Ranting at Bolshevism as the GOP now does against Islam, the Nazis used the burning of the Reichstag much as the GOP has capitalized on the terror attacks of September 11.

George W. Bush does not spellbind huge Goebbels-massed rallies as Hitler did. But he does not tolerate groups that might ask embarrassing questions, and has packed the nation's bloviator corps with servile panderers. Rove uses the mass media to manipulate and deceive in ways suited to the trappings of American culture as surely as Goebbels shaped Hitler's speeches to the German volksgeist."

The Hitler analogy is a loser of course, but have we become fascist? One hard look at campaign financing says "yes".

"Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.

People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap."

Um, can we fill this gap, please? To think of the billions we've spent and we allow this....

"Samples taken from South Korean pigs contain genes from a human flu virus created by scientists in 1933, and one American flu researcher says the sequences could represent a dangerous situation for humans.

The World Health Organization, which monitors the worldwide spread of flu, is remaining mum until researchers finish an investigation of the pig samples.

The presence of a man-made human flu virus in pigs may be worrisome for several reasons. First, a man-made virus has no business in pigs -- did the virus get there naturally, or was it a lab accident? More frighteningly, but less likely, was it bioterrorism? Second, viruses often use pigs as a conduit to humans, who would have little or no immune resistance to this particular strain of flu since no one has been exposed to it."

Let's see how this story pans out. I have long wondered why the WHO allows these pig farms in SE Asia to continue like they are, given that they are the root of the flu virus every year. Now it looks like we humans may have let loose a dangerous strain there....

Monday, March 07, 2005

"Ever play the musician/athlete game? You just pick a band or singer and then decide which sports star they'd be. For instance, Springsteen is Larry Bird, the workingman's hero. Guns N' Roses are Doc Gooden, the prodigy who flamed out too fast. The Stones are Ali, the greatest until they hung around too long. The Police are John McEnroe -- gifted, tortured, ultimately unable to keep it together.

You can easily kill an eight-hour car ride this way ... as long as you keep U2 out of it. Trying to find a match for that band will make you crazy. Kareem and Roger Clemens had similar longevity, but nobody liked them. Ditto for Barry Bonds, although Bonds' head and Bono's both have grown exponentially over the years. Nolan Ryan was breathtaking in moments, but never transcendent. Gretzky and MJ didn't dominate long enough. The closest comparison? Jack Nicklaus. Big splash in the '60s, superduperstar in the '70s, stunning revival in the '80s -- it's a similar arc, right down to the success of "Vertigo" and the 1986 Masters. But can you compare U2 to a golfer? Of course not.

Here's the point: bands just don't do what U2 have done. They don't stay together for 26 years without even a token separation (or 20). They don't continue to pump out quality albums and concert tours (sorry, I don't count the Dead, who haven't been nearly as popular). And they don't resonate with three different generations."

More speculation, this time from the fantastic "explainer" column at Slate. Also saw a brief clip on Fox about Bono and the World Bank. Read the article to find out why Irishman Bono is an unlikely choice.

Friday, March 04, 2005

When my free trial of Microsoft Office expired Feb. 28, I went looking for a way to get it for free. I was nervous about doing anything illegal with my computer, but I also was unwilling to pay top dollar for such common software. That's when I came across OpenOffice....it replaces Word, Excel, and Power Point. It's compatible with those programs, so you can open any of those files, and work with them. Plus, it has other goodies like .pdf export. And besides that....it's FREE, that's right FREE!!!! No problems to mention thus far, I am a very satisfied customer and I highly recommend this software. I'm floored.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

"Los Angeles Times Editorial Page Editor Andres Martinez said the suggestion of Bono to head the World Bank was entirely serious, although he said the newspaper was also making an effort to 'take chances' and be 'less predictable' on its opinion page in recent months."

"Administration officials have managed, in a fashion that must be stunning to some of the officers who rebuilt the armed forces in the 1980s, to recreate a Vietnam-like catastrophe, a tunnel with no light whatsoever at the end -- so much for the 'lessons' of that war -- and are now clearly considering furthering the Vietnam analogy by hitting out at the present-day equivalent of 'sanctuary areas' in neighboring states (Syria and Iran)."

Fascinating article with lots of links...I don't agree with all of this, but there's a lot to think about here including letters from citizens in Germany and Iraq.